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A lot has happened in the three years between Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and it sounds like time has not been very kind to Clark Kent’s alter ego.

While chatting it up on DC All Access, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder said Supes has been trying to make amends for shredding most of Metropolis and killing thousands during his fight with Zod, and the efforts aren’t exactly going too well. It seems no matter how much good he tries to do, Superman just keeps making more people angry. For every action, there’s an equal (and opposite) reaction.

Here’s how Snyder explained it:

"He's been righting wrongs. There have been floods, mines have collapsed, bridges have collapsed, churches have caught on fire. He's basically been a hero. But that's not been easy in the modern world, apparently … He’s starting to see that every action has a reaction. Like, if you're just taking a cat out of a tree, you can't touch anything or the arborists will say, 'He damaged the tree branch when he got the cat down.' Or, 'The cat wasn't neutered, so now there's thousands of cats.' There's no winning anymore for Superman."

This is an interesting tidbit that delves deeper into what Snyder is doing with the Superman character as a whole, trying to look at some real-life effects of a godlike figure showing up out of the blue. But, in a way, it goes against the ethos of what Superman represents. Basically, Batman v Superman will skip over the three years where Superman is doing Superman-esque things (i.e. saving puppies, rescuing flood victims, etc.) and jump into the aftermath, where he faces off with Batman.

Which, sure, a fight with Batman is the headline that will sell tickets, but it begs the bigger question of exactly what type of Superman Synder is creating. We haven’t really gotten to see Superman be Superman up to this point, and judging by the comments here, it seems we’ll be skipping right over that part in the sequel’s timeline.